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Valentine's Day: A Fresh Look at Love
CHICAGO, IL (February 14, 2004) - The Department of Communication of the
Evangelical Covenant Church occasionally publishes online devotionals
submitted by local churches or gleaned from local church newsletters.
The following was written by pastor Craig Knudsen of Community Covenant
Church in El Cajon, California.
February is the month of Valentine's Day, a day that's painful for some
who've lost a loved one or had a love relationship fail, but it's a time
when the word "LOVE" is on people's minds.
1 Corinthians 13 describes the essence of love with 15 short phrases,
one of which is the phrase, "Love is kind." Loving people do kind things
for each other. The apostle John tells us to love one another not only
with words, but with deeds as well. Words are important, but they can
turn cheap and become empty if there are no expressions of kindness.
If you're going to grow in kindness - translate love into deeds of
kindness - you're going to have to grow in the skill of CREATIVITY. When
you do an act of kindness you have to ask yourself, "What manifestation
of love will mean the most to the one I'm being kind to?"
There have been several times when events in my life could be best
described as "people intensive." At one period of time there were three
funerals (one of which was the tragic death of a 21-year-old), our
annual church retreat, a couple of weddings, a couple of divorces,
hiring staff, along with the regular load of meetings and teaching
responsibilities. I get recharged by being alone - being introverted by
nature - and I was feeling a huge need to get away. I came home one day
and my wife, Karen, had arranged three days at the Crystal Pier Hotel,
right on the water at Pacific Beach. That was a gift of kindness I've
never forgotten. It was a creative expression of love that meant the
world to an introvert like me. Karen would've hated three days alone,
but she scrolled through the options that would mean the most to me.
Love is kind!
I've been on a couple of houseboat trips and had the use of a wonderful
wakeboard each time. The first year, I couldn't get up (on the board) at
all, mainly because there wasn't a wakeboard to fit my 6-foot-8-inch
frame or boots to fit my size-15 foot. The second year we went, the
owner of the boat pulled these special XL sized boots and brand new long
wakeboard just for me to use so I could have a great experience - and it
was. That was real kindness.
I remember kindness every time I walk through a doorway at Community
Covenant Church, because our designer of the remodeled church (a member
of the church) purposefully made each doorway six inches taller than
standard for one person - ME - so I wouldn't hit my head or have to duck
every time I walked through a door around here. In all of these cases,
the person expressing love through kindness thought in advance, got
creative, rolled through some options and decided what would be a
meaningful expression of love. So many of us fall short in loving with
kindness because we don't press the creativity button due to being so
exhausted and busy.
Here's an assignment in the spirit of Valentine's Day: Think of one act
of kindness that pushes the envelope of creativity for you and then act
on it. It doesn't count to say, "Okay, I guess I'll finally clean out
the garage." Don't stop at the first, easy option, but muster the
energy, push your thinking and then EXPRESS KINDNESS to a loved one.
Jesus was very kind. He called a woman, who'd had an embarrassing
internal hemorrhaging for 12 years, "daughter!" He never called anyone
else by that term in the entire New Testament. His first miracle was
correcting a faux pas at a wedding in Cana where the host ran out of
wine. Quietly, behind the scenes, Jesus whips up 10 huge jars of the
best Chardonnay they'd ever had. What a kind thing to do!
Everyday kindness is an expression of love. So, take on the "LOVE
CHALLENGE" this month. Our Lord would be proud of us if we did.
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